Category:PD Israel & British Mandate

Until May 24, 2008, Israel used the British Copyright Act of 1911, subject to revisions and amendments introduced by the authorities of the former British Mandate of Palestine (particularly the 1924 Copyright Ordinance), and, since May 1948, the Israeli legislator (Informal English version of the Ordinance's last version). On May 25, 2008, a new Israeli Copyright Law came into force. Regarding creative works produced before the enactment of the new law, a special paragraph in this law determines whether the new or the old copyright law should apply on them (§78, 2007 Law).

The Israeli Copyright Law of 2007 (enacted in 2008) makes a distinction between copyrights owned by the State and privately owned copyrights.

Copyrights on private works expire on January 1 of the 71st year after the authors death (§38, §43, 2007 Law). In case the work was created by several authors, it is the 71st year after the death of the last surviving author (§39, §43, 2007 Law).

Copyrights on works, which the State is their first copyright owner, expire on January 1st of the 51st year after their creation (§42, §43, 2007 Law). The State is the first owner of copyrights on works created by state-employees of any kind (including soldiers and policemen) in the course of their work, and of works ordered by a State's authority. The state can waive this right in a special contract with the author, in which case the rules regarding privately owned copyrights apply (§36, 2007 Law).

The 2007 law applies retrospectively on State-owned copyrights. It does not change the copyright terms for private works, except photographs taken after the law was enacted. Therefore: a photograph taken before May 25, 2008 is released to the public domain on January 1 of the 51st year after its creation; a photograph taken on or after May 25th, 2008 is released to the public domain on January 1 of the 71st year after the photographer's death.

The Israeli law determines that the contents of laws, court rulings, protocols of the parliament's plenary and the official gazette (reshumot) are not eligible to copyrights (§6, 2007 Law). However, draft laws, protocols of the parliament's committees, unofficial consolidated versions of laws etc. might be copyright protected.